5of6A muffuletta sandwich at the Meatery in Seaside.Photo: Nic Coury / Special to The Chronicle

6of6Cultura Comida y Bebida has a late-night happy hour from 10-midnight that features an assortment of $3 tacos. Two of the most popular ones are the chicken tinga (roasted chicken with tomatoes, chipotle, onion and bell peppers) and lengua with guajillo salsa (shredded beef tongue slow-braised with onions, garlic and avocado leaves).Photo: Cultura Comida y Bebida

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The Monterey Peninsula has long been a foodie haven — from the leafy greens of the Salinas Valley to $200 tasting menus in the swankier parts of the region.

But to people with adventurous appetites and thinner wallets, take heart: Pro chefs around the county have been launching pop-ups and other underground dining options that bring high-end, affordable food for locals and visitors in the know. Chefs get to experiment with passion projects; diners get access to unique dishes.

“Pop-ups allow enthusiastic young upstarts to get recognized for a splash event without all the overhead,” says Todd Champagne, co-owner of Happy Girl Kitchen in Pacific Grove.

Happy Girl Kitchen is known for its pickles and canned goods, sold at farmers’ markets throughout the Bay Area. (It hosts sporadic pop-ups featuring vegetarian fare from local farms. Check the restaurant’s Facebook page for updates.)

Here are five pop-ups worth the room in your belly:

Foraged goods

Chef Michael Jones says he’s worked with some of the best chefs across Europe but doesn’t have the capital to open a brick-and-mortar in Carmel Valley. Instead he hosts intermittent pop-ups at Douglas Ranch featuring everything from his signature roasted bone marrow to locally foraged porcini steaks. The menu always varies. Jones enjoys full creative control, custom-crafting meals for those who want to share stories and sip wine at communal tables.

He accepts no substitutes.

“You’re coming to my house. You don’t get to tell me what to cook,” Jones says.

To get tickets for the pop-up, you need to visit the Cachagua General Store Facebook page. Although the store doesn’t exist any longer, this page still gives up-to-the-moment news about Jones’ offerings.

Chef Aaron Rayor, head chef of Carmel’s Cantinetta Luca, admits that he’s been a little homesick for the made-to-order Japanese meat skewers he ate while growing up in Torrance (Los Angeles County). Rayor began his pop-up in late December, because he wanted to bring a new cuisine to the Monterey area and put his mark on it.

“I miss eating that food, but no one around here really knows what yakitori is,” Rayor says. “I get to make soy or miso or things I wouldn’t get to do in an Italian restaurant.”

To find dates, times and location, follow @oishii.yakitori on Instagram.

Artisanal doughnuts

Michelle Rizzolo, co-founder of the Big Sur Bakery, is using her skills as a pastry chef to bring dessert for breakfast to Pacific Grove once a month.

Rizzolo, who oversees the restaurant’s internationally famous pastries, breads and desserts, has started a doughnuts-only pop-up at Poppy Hall Restaurant, founded by her ex-husband and former business partner, Philip Wojtowicz, who wrote “The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook” with her. Rizzolo said the pop-up allows her freedom to experiment and take risks. “It can be so hard to implement your new ideas because all of your old ideas are in production,” Rizzolo says.

She makes a few hundred doughnuts for the events and sells out in about an hour.

“We are usually still filling the doughnuts as people are walking through the door,” Rizzolo says. Buzzed-about doughnut creations include a chocolate pot de creme, banana cream pie and cajeta (slow-cooked caramelized goat’s milk).

Jason Balestrieri of the Meatery put in decades of time in Monterey-area kitchens before opening his whole-animal butcher shop in Seaside last spring. Now, he hosts monthly pop-ups that range from inexpensive street food like brats and ramen to $150 umami-oriented eight-course menus featuring oysters and in-house rib-eye dry-aged for 150 days.

As the name implies, the star of these pop-ups is the meat that Balestrieri and his staff cure, brine, and smoke in the large, built-out kitchen at his store. There are just 32 seats. For non-ticketed events like the ramen dinner, lines have been out the door for hours.

“The pop-up allows us to have something out of the ordinary, where people have to wait for it,” Balestrieri says.

The sleepy town of Carmel-by-the-Sea traditionally closes down around 9 p.m., which has left those hungry for good food and nightlife to fend for themselves. Now the team behind Cultura Comida y Bebida is dishing out high-end, late-night happy hour fare.

Chef Michelle Estigoy cooks up traditional Oaxacan cuisine, but with a local twist. For just $3 a taco, you can feast on chicken tinga (roasted chicken with tomatoes, chipotle, onion and bell peppers) or lengua with guajillo salsa (shredded beef tongue slow braised with onions, garlic and avocado leaves). There are also $8 house-made margaritas on the menu. There isn’t a better midnight snack to be found in town.